My article is on martial arts in general but applies to kenjutsu on many issues.  I am targeting for this article the areas of Kata, Training, Ranking, traditional versus change.

First let me begin with Kata, Pro's and cons?  Are the kata's useless or do they hold something that is being missed by those who dismiss them and old and irrelevant?  In my opinion the Kata hold the essence of the art they were created for.  Hidden in the Kata are the Bunkai, the techniques that are shown to the practitioner after kata is mastered (or at least this is how it is suppose to be) Some will say that Kata is useless because it was created for situations which no longer exist. (There is nothing new under the sun) History will repeat itself and you never know what situations may present themselves by dismissing a part of any art.  And there is always what we call Evolution!  Each master is suppose to add a part of themselves to the art they have mastered so there should always be new and exciting kata as well as the traditional kata so that the art remains effective in this day and age.

Training should involve today's elements of negativity and battle situations.  A sword against a Gun? Are you crazy???????  I grew up in the South Bronx NY and Guns were a constant reality I have stared down the barrel many times and been shot 4 times.  But I do remember one incident that I will share with you.  Walking through saint James park at 9 PM (this park is on Kingsbridge Avenue in the Bronx.) I just purchased a boken early that day from tiger kims sporting goods shop on Fordham road and was walking with it in a plastic bag.  Bam!  Here it is the robbery two big Spanish males one with a gun one with a bat.  "run your green brother man!"  "what's in the bag homey?" "I don't have any money and all I got is a boken." "What I'll bust a cap in your black a** you think you gangster?" "Empty your pockets and the bag" that was the moment I knew they messed up I dropped the 6 bucks I had left out my pockets on to the ground pulled my boken out of the bag when they looked at the money on the floor and cracked the first guy on the wrist he dropped the gun I cracked him on the should and neck (clavicle)   and he screamed and fell out cold I spun around and cracked the other man in the leg he dropped the bat I then cracked him in the neck shoulder and he too fell out.  I picked up my money kicked the gun into the bushes and left the park (police are never in that area and pay phones don't work in this area either)

The above was a result of training that we do in the dojo.  We practice with paint guns flex sticks rubber knives against Shinai.  The chances of you having a sword boken or shinai in a street situation is slim to none but a stick may be on the ground and that works just fine. For necessity is the mother of invention.  Just as I believe Kata needs to evolve so does training.  Now I don't mean to take away from tradition but to add to it - it should not remain stagnant!  Traditionally most schools train with the same art versus same art mentality.  Karate versus Karate, kung fu versus kung fu, grappling versus grappling, bo versus bo, kendo vers kendo etc, etc,.  I believe in encompassing all for that is how one learns, karate versus grappling, kendo versus bo  weapon versus empty hand etc, etc.  Some will say that you loose part of the art when you do this, I say you gain the missing part of the art when you do this!  In time past martial arts masters worked with other martial arts masters of different technique to help make themselves stronger.  Should we not do the same?

What does it take to become a master of any art?  Who decides this?  Are the masters that are acknowledged as masters really masters?  In my opinion, it takes perception to become a master in any art.  Anybody can learn the techniques the katas and possess power.  But power without perception is meaningless.  Mastery is not in the kata its not a knowledge of any certain technique or the acquisition of strength, it is not in preconceptions but in perception..  To this fact I would like to tell a story I very much adore.

The Black Circle  (story passed to us by our grand master and read to our students every promotional)
In the old days, the martial arts were highly secretive, and practitioners would go to great lengths to guard their private techniques.  Such techniques are the hardest to attain, for they require far more skill and practice than most students have the stamina to work for.

 This is a story exemplifying this devotion to improvement.  It concerns a very famous Japanese sword master named Bokuden who was a prime example of a lifetime of practice.  No one could match him in a sword fight.  When he became an old man, he devoted his time to teaching the art of the sword; some of the most venerated names in samurai history were students of the teacher Bokuden.

 A Zen-trained sword fighter, he accepted his students in the typical Zen manner, testing their patience by making them wait for two years before they could begin training.  One of his students spent a period of six months, after his final acceptance, doing nothing but cleaning and working for the master in his kitchen.  After a half year of this, the student's patience was as an end, and he asked the master when he would be instructed in sword handling.  The student vehemently exclaimed that his only desire in life was to be a swordsman and that he did not think that the great Bokuden was teaching him to become one.  At this, the old Zen master looked into the eyes of his student and replied that they would begin lesson two the next day.

 That night, as the student lay asleep, the sword master attacked him with a bamboo stick, thrashing him viciously.  Subsequently, the student would be working, and suddenly in the heat of a summer's day the master would attack him with all his vigor.  Any time the student was not on the alert or was trying to relax, he would be attacked or hit with a stick.  Eventually, the master began to use the flat of his sword in the surprise attacks.  For several years, not a word passed between the master and the student, but every time the master saw him, he would attack.
 When the student was finally able to carry a sword himself, he practiced blocking the master's attacks under every condition.  The student eventually got to the point in his training where, although he might be sound asleep, he would instinctively jump up as the danger of the master's sword descended upon him.  After much time had passed, he reached the stage where he could draw his sword in time to fend of the attacks.  At this point, the master finally spoke to him.

 He told the student to meet him early the next morning, for he would have something of value for him.  When he met the master the next day, he was presented with a magnificent diploma, a piece of white rice paper with a black circle drawn on it.  When Bokuden presented it to his graduated student, he said to him the following words, "This black circle represents the mirror of your mind.  Now you are a swordsman."  With this, the swordsman left the house of the great master forever.  That particular diploma became very famous through the reputation of the student who earned it, for he came to be known as the fastest sword fighter of the Tokugawa period.  His name was Miyamoto Musashi.

 The methods of Zen masters like Bokuden were based on the empirical system of learning.  Their thinking was not limited to the learning of preconceptions; their students were taught by having their instincts aroused so that they attained skill instead of academic training in preconceived ideas.  In the Bushido (the way of the Bushi, or warrior), it was taught that "one can achieve Nirvana through one's own iron will."

In my dojo we teach all the arts separate Karate in one room Jujutsu in another , Kobudo in this hall and Kendo upstairs.  But once a month we all come together in our monthly kumite and compete names drawn from a hat and fight. (This is the way of the Bushi)

My thoughts on ranking?  A pretty piece of paper to frame and hang on the wall.  Alas in this day and age of our paper society it is important to those who do not have any other way of judging a teacher.  I have a favorite statement of one of my teachers in that "the martial arts is not in the belt it is in the mind" I have recently gone to a tournament and looked at the quality of martial artists competing and was quite taken back.  Third degree black belts who were young looking sloppy I can understand deterioration with age but not young strapping adults.  I entered my green belt men in black belt division (my senior green belt took home the championship in kumite)  What I have found in my research is that we are allowing schools to spring up without any type or regulations to the teachers status we have McMartialarts chains.  In the old days it was quite easy to determine who was legitimate and who was not now it is not so.   Teachers give belts to students who pay their tuition bills rather then to those who earn it.  How does this affect Schools who follow the Bushi?  It does not affect us at all for those who want the arts will find us through the confusion.  They will skip the fast food chains and come to eat at our exquisite restaurants.  When it is said and done a black belt from one school should be a fair match for a black belt from another school that is the measurement of quality when beginning students of one school are more then a match for senior students of another then that is a measurement of quality.  Some schools believe in not competing be it for kata, point, NHB, 2 minute rounds or anything that puts their school against another.  Some will state they teach true self defense and their techniques are to dangerous to be used in competition.  (I have taught and been taught in the worst neighborhoods of New York and have had to fight on a daily basis growing up in the streets and I still competed so how can this be?)  Before I became a man and learned the lessons of Life I was a gang member and applied my art in situations that disprove the theory that you cant be self defense and competition.  My thoughts on ranking, are simply Show and Prove paper is just something to hang on the wall that looks pretty.  (don't get me wrong I like the paper to hang on my wall myself)

As an ending to this writing of mine id like to say I have a 11X17 certificate with the Thunder Cat Logo on it that I do not hang on my wall.  I am proud of my achievement but it makes me feel rather childish due to the cartoon by that name and the fact that the certificate is using that logo.  This is a personal hump that I must one day get over for one day my teacher said I will be in charge of this organization.  I guess it could be worse I could be certified under a Ninja Turtle Association!